Rybak a-Twitter over lowest city homicide numbers in 26 years

We're less than two days away from 2010, and Minneapolis appears poised to record its lowest number of homicides in 26 years. Not only that, but the 19 killings in 2009 represent a 50 percent drop over the previous year's number.

Those are figures that Mayor R.T. Rybak was happy to trumpet via Twitter on Wednesday morning, linking back to a big reaction piece in the Star Tribune: "Thank you to community, MPD officers and Chief Dolan for your work cutting homicides to lowest number in 26 years."

The Strib points out that this is good news for Dolan, who's waiting to find out if the City Council will give him another three years as the city's top cop.

It's also good news for Rybak's gubernatorial campaign, giving him the opportunity out state to brag about how a big-city liberal can help stem lawlessness. As we noted last week, the first six months of the year saw violent crime drop 16.5 percent in Minneapolis, compared to a 4.4 percent drop nationally over the same time period.